Sous Vide Asparagus (Butter Poached)

5 from 8 votes

Sous Vide Asparagus takes less than 20 minutes and the result is the most amazing, tender and crisp butter poached asparagus!

Prep Time5

Cook Time13

Total Time18

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 172kcal

Heat a sous vide water bath to 182F degrees.
Trim the woody ends off the bottom of the asparagus (depends on the thickness of the asparagus but about 1 - 1 ½ inches).
Place the asparagus in a vacuum sealable or ziplock bag, add the salt and place 1 tablespoon of butter in each corner of the bag.
Use a vacuum sealer to seal the bag, or use the water displacement method (see above).
Cook 9 minutes for thin, 11 minutes for medium and 13 minutes for thick asparagus.
Remove the asparagus from the bag, mix with the Parmesan cheese and serve on a platter drizzled with the butter from the bag and a squeeze of lemon juice (optional).

For even cooking, make sure the asparagus is arranged in the sealable bag in a single layer.
As we’re essentially butter poaching the asparagus, I like to use a lot of butter for this recipe. If you prefer, you can substitute olive oil. Just make sure it’s good quality as it will have the best flavor.
The sealed bag of asparagus should be completely submerged in the water bath. If it isn’t, the asparagus may cook unevenly.
When cooking vegetables in a sous vide water bath, they tend to release air as they cook, which causes them to float. For this reason, the water displacement method often works better when cooking vegetables because you can open the ziploc bag to let the air out.
If you use a vacuum sealed bag and it floats, you can always cut open the bag, release the air and reseal it with the vacuum sealer.
To prevent floating, you can also weigh down the bag with something heavy. I normally use a heavy duty binder clip to clip heavy butter knives to each side of the bag. You can also use sous vide weights.